By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — While the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory continues waiting for its new ladder truck to be delivered, the fire department keeps having to repair the old one.

During the WWFT board meeting Tuesday, Oct. 1, Chief Joel Shilling explained a $23,000 transfer from July related to the old ladder truck.

“We didn’t transfer the money to pay for the parts for the ladder truck when we sent it to get fixed until we were invoiced. So we waited to transfer that money until we were invoiced. That transfer shows up this month,” he said, adding they asked to transfer that money back in maybe May.

“And I assume that truck is working just Smurfy?” Councilman Mike Klondaris asked.

“It is not. It was taken out of service about a week ago. We had to replace another module on it. It was back in service, and then was down again this morning for another issue,” Shilling said. “We are ready for — between that and engine 17 that runs downtown — the trucks we ordered need to be here sooner than later.”

He said they’re working through it. Fortunately, Damian Pass, shop supervisor at the Warsaw Street Department, with the help of Public Works Superintendent Dustin Dillon “is a huge asset for us at the territory. Typically, when our stuff goes down, he’s right there. If he’s at home, he comes in and helps us, so a huge shoutout to Dustin and the whole public works department. They save us a lot of money in labor,” Shilling said.

“And possibly somebody’s life,” Klondaris stated.

When the WWFT ladder truck does go down, Shilling said Winona Lake has a ladder truck and they’ll come in to assist.

One of the trucks the fire department is waiting on is an engine that will be housed downtown Warsaw at station 17, he explained after the meeting. The other one, that the WWFT agreed to purchase in June 2022, is through Hoosier Fire out of Valparaiso.

“It sounds like it’s almost done. Hopefully, by March of ‘25 we have it. And then the ladder truck, obviously, has been approved and purchased by former Chief (Brian) Mayo. It’s a long build date though, it’s almost a 2-1/2-years build date,” Shilling said.

It’ll be a while for that truck to arrive, too, he said.

In December 2023, Mayo presented the Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety with an agreement to start the process to purchase a new Smeal/Spartan 100-foot rear-mount aerial platform ladder truck for about $1.8 million to replace the 2005 Pierce Aerial Platform ladder truck, according to a previous Times-Union article.

Shilling also gave the board Tuesday the monthly fire activity report for August. He said they had 299 responses in August, with 85 of those incidents (28%) being overlapping.

They had six fire calls. Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory gave mutual aid to Leesburg twice and Syracuse once, though they did end up getting cancelled on the Syracuse call, which was an airplane into Lake Wawasee.

The WWFT received mutual aid from Winona Lake and Leesburg at Walmart, 2501 Walton Blvd., when there was a chemical spill. Winona also assisted with a house fire at 206 S. Union St., while Claypool assisted with a vehicle accident.

During the month, WWFT had 199 medical calls; 12 hazardous conditions, no fires; seven service calls; 19 good intent calls; and 23 false alarms/calls.

By station, station 17 responded to 124 calls; station 13, 112 calls; station 15, 31; and Community Assistance, Resources, Emergency Services, 31.

The department trained for a total of 483.25 hours in August on medical assessments, geriatric emergencies, forcible entry, pump operations, fire inspector course, ladders, driver operator and other areas.

As for community service, Shilling said they visit the schools and had 5.25 community service hours doing public education in August.

C.A.R.E.S. Director Chris Fancil reported that they had 59 contacts for CARES in September.

C.A.R.E.S. Community Health Coordinator Mikaela Bixler attended a car seat technician program, put on by Lutheran EMS, so Bixler can help people with car seats. WWFT Administrative Assistant Karen Smith is the only other person at the fire department who currently does that when people ask to have their car seats checked.

Fancil said CARES also helped out with Family Safety Day on Sept. 21 and that was a hit. CARES maintained a tent right in the middle of everything with 22 local resources in there.

Bixler and Chris Francis, Warsaw Police Department, taught a Crisis Intervention Training class, that is 40 hours over a one-week period. They had 26 students, Fancil said, from area police departments, the jail, home detention and other emergency service personnel.

Finally, Fancil said they did partake in the Communities Recover Together event on Sept. 5 at the Warsaw Community High School Performing Arts Center, which was funded by a Rural Communities Opioid Response Program grant. About 50 people attended to hear a personal story from former Judge Linda Davis.

“That was a good program as well,” Fancil stated.

Lutheran EMS Director of Operations Alicia Mediano reported that in August they had a total of 503 encounters.

“That is the busiest month of August that we’ve had in the last 10 years, actually,” she said. “So our 911 call volume, at the end of August, was up 22% over 2023. We really aren’t surprised by that when we look at the population of Kosciusko County and how it continues to grow, and especially here in Warsaw-Wayne Township.”

She said that’s why Lutheran EMS increased the time on one of its ambulances from eight to 12 hours – because they needed that expanded hours and coverage.

So far this year, only June had more encounters with 511, with May having 502 and July having 450. April had the least at 418 encounters.

In other business, the board:

• Approved a resolution to transfer $35,000 from fire protection territory health insurance to operating supplies to help cover the remaining fuel costs and general operating costs through December. Shilling said he will take the resolution to the Warsaw Common Council on Oct. 7.

For 2024, the health insurance account included funds for insurance cost increases, but the city didn’t end up having an increase so more money was budgeted for this year for insurance than what was needed.

• Approved the application for and acceptance of a $450 grant for Tanya Jackson, C.A.R.E.S. navigator, to attend the CIT International Coordinator Certification Course. The Board of Public Works and Safety approved it on Sept. 20.

• Heard the November meeting will be moved to 4 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 6 due to Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 5.